Facebook games have the stigma of being
time-and-money pits, promoting
lackluster design with an emphasis on cash shops just to play the basic
game for more than ten minutes. When you think of gaming on Facebook,
one game springs to mind – style="font-style: italic;">Farmville.
However, there is more to Facebook gaming than planting crops and
getting different colored cows; in fact, there are actual MMOGs to be
found. I, your intrepid reporter, have plunged into the sordid
underbelly of Facebook to find five MMOGs that are actually worth
playing. After countless hours spent in app hell, I can finally deliver
such a list.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/98968"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 451px;"
alt="farmville"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98968">

Is there more to Facebook
gaming than cows?

The problem with most Facebook games are that you can easily spend much
more in a few hours than you would paying for a monthly subscription to
a normal MMOG. Many Facebook games require you to expend
“energy” or some other attribute to do actions.
Normally,
those kinds of attributes replenish slowly over time, usually with a
timer off to the side counting down to when you gain back a single
point. When you run out of said “energy”, you can
either
wait a long while to let it replenish or you can spend some kind of
virtual currency, purchased with real life cash, to buy a refill or a
potion to replenish the points. In addition, many useful items (of the
more powerful variety than you would find in the normal loot drops
within the game) need to be bought or parts of the game need to be
unlocked by spending real-life dough.



The games listed here allow you a great deal of gameplay without
spending any real money and fall into the traditional MMOG style:
gathering quests from NPCs, gaining levels, having special abilities,
and so on. I must make something absolutely clear. I am not saying that
these games are as good as or better than subscription-based MMOGs.
Because these are Facebook games, they tend to have simplified
crafting, no real character appearance options (besides hairstyle or
color), easier combat systems, and streamlined skill options (if they
have skill trees at all). These games are designed to be easy to play
so players can easily pick them up and entice their friends to join the
fray. If you want some mindless action and fun, then you’re
looking in the right place.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/98969"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 435px;"
alt="godswar online"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98969">

THIS IS PANDALAND!!! Uh...I
mean, THIS IS SPARTA!

style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">GodsWar
Online:
This
game
features a
Greek theme with the player choosing to represent Athens or Sparta.
Don’t let the setting fool you as that historical accuracy
(or
even attempt at historical accuracy) do not even think about making an
appearance. The game does a nice job of holding your hand as you learn
the ropes. A nice feature is an auto-travel ability where you can click
on an NPC or a creature in the quest description and your character
will walk to where they are located. From the very beginning,
you’ll have pets that can accompany you and help you out with
skills of their own. Nothing says “This is Sparta!”
like a
panda bear with a short sword. The animation is done in the anime style
and is cutesy in nature. A key feature is what they call AFK mode where
you can have your character automatically attack and cast spells on
whatever enemies are around you while you chat with friends or such. If
you do it too long, the game will point out that this feature is to
allow you time to chat and not to walk away for hours and then it will
come out of AFK mode. A thing to remember is that you don’t
pick
up any loot when you’re in AFK mode.






style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">City
of Eternals:
Goths rejoice! In href="http://apps.facebook.com/eternals/">this
MMOG, you play as a recent
convert to the undead. You have risen as
a vampire in the city of New Valencia and need to choose which one of
the four Vampire Houses you will join. There’s actually a
good
amount of lore and storylines in this game. While the graphics
aren’t cutting edge, everything is suitably moody and,
besides,
playing as a vampire is always cool. You tend to use only a few combat
moves, but you make them more powerful as you level up. My biggest
complaint is that you can’t drop potions into your taskbar as
that your taskbar only appears when you’re in combat. To
drink a
health potion, you need to open your inventory and click
“consume” on the item in question. The other
annoying bit
is your guide (Batty) making windows pop-up every time you level in
something and you need to close them. Still, this is a solid game.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/98967"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 378px;"
alt="city of eternals"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98967">

Vamping around in City of
Eternals.

style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Pearl
Heroes of
the Three Kingdoms: href="http://apps.facebook.com/pearlhero/">This game
is similar to
GodsWar
Online
. This game also
holds your hand quite well in the beginning. It has auto-travel to NPCs
and monsters, which is just as well. There are a lot of portal points
linking the small zones together, so it can get confusing travelling
around. In Pearl
Heroes
,
you’ll get a mount early on which you’ll use from
then on
as it enhances your abilities and has skills of its own that can be
improved. I felt a little awkward when I realized I was only a few
levels higher than my horse. Shouldn’t he get a bigger cut of
the
loot other than oat and hay? It has cutesy Eastern style graphics, ala
console games of the late 1990s. Quest rewards tend to be a choice
between four items – one for each class in the game. I do
like
the fact that you automatically loot the enemy when you kill them.



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">MilMo:
This
kid-friendly
MMOG

comes from the Swedish game company Junebud. Squarely aimed at younger
players, this colorful 3D MMOG is kind of addictive. You adventure
through a world comprised of different islands fulfilling quests and
doing quite a bit of jumping around. There are powerups to be found and
cannons to be shot out of to reach inaccessible places. The graphics
are reminiscent of cutesy games on the Wii. Another feature is that
each player has their own house that they can decorate as they see fit
(or can afford) and you can invite other players into your house. You
can purchase a VIP status that gives you a discount in the shop and
unlocks certain areas. There is no character leveling in style="font-style: italic;">MilMo.
The emphasis is on exploring
and getting new stuff for you to wear or use. Overall, it’s
good
clean fun. My only complaint is there is quite a bit of lag at times.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/98970"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 436px;"
alt="milmo" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98970">

Transportation hijinks in
MilMo.

style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Fragoria:
The differing feature of href="http://apps.facebook.com/fragoria/">this
game is its Russian roots. There
are elements of Russian folklore
in the game that aren’t really spelled out, but are easily
picked
up like seeing Baba Yaga’s hut. (They just call her a witch
in
the game.)  Like most of the other MMOGs on the list, this
game is
isometric in layout. The UI is cluttered, but you can move the various
elements around to mitigate the clutter. The graphics are pretty good
(and non-anime) and there is a wide world to explore that is literally
teeming with monsters. Sadly, the quests are cookie-cutter (kill X of
something) and combat goes by extremely quickly. It’s
definitely
number five on the list but head and shoulders above most of the other
games I tried out.



While most games that are found on Facebook leave a lot to be desired
(suck is a better term), there are some decent games to be found. The
five MMOGs that I’ve listed above make for some fine
diversionary
gaming to help you get your online-monster-killing fix. They offer
quite a bit of gameplay and you could spend some serious killing undead
on Facebook as opposed to harvesting carrots or feeding cows.



To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our GodsWar Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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